Building Digital Capability Creates Measurable Results for the Municipality of Aarhus

A remarkable increase in both efficiency, quality and user satisfaction that is the result of an ambitious IT-training initiative conducted in 2015 by the Mayor’s Department in the Municipality of Aarhus.

The initiative was inspired by a user satisfaction survey showing a low level of user satisfaction, varying competencies and a non-optimal use of one of the municipality’s core IT systems.

The Goal Is Strategically Aligned People Development

From the very beginning of the project, an important focus point is to ensure maximal impact of the IT training for all stakeholders: employees, managers, citizens and, last but not least, the IT support team. Moreover, it is a clear priority to the Mayor’s Department that the IT training programs are strategically aligned. As a result, they decide on a digital solution that is able to systemize their work, and help identify detailed, clear and measurable learning objectives by unpacking strategic goals into program-specific learning objectives.

The Mayor’s Department chooses to implement the Peopleway® Impact Management Solution in order to secure the impact of the IT training programs. The cloud-based solution is used for translating strategy into learning objectives as well as for needs assessment, measuring and securing impact, and as a communication tool for reporting the results of the training programs.

Involvement Creates Motivation and Ownership

Assessing the IT users’ situation and needs enables the Mayor’s Department to tailor a series of IT training programs that fit the exact needs of their target group. The training content is, to a large extent, based on several internal workshops concerning problem identification, needs assessment and ownership.

Identification of Learning Needs and Differentiation of Target Groups

Next step in the IT training development process is a pre-test that identifies the IT users’ learning needs. The pre-test uncovers which training programs it would be most beneficial for the individual course participant to follow in order to optimize impact and learning outcome of all training activities.

The result is a series of different IT training programs e.g., E-doc courses on three levels:

Level 1 – targeting new or moderately experienced users

Level 2 – targeting experienced users with specific user needs

Level 3 – targeting experts and ‘super users’

Communicating Training Results Facilitates Implementation

Dashboards, customized reporting and real-time feedback facilitates the development of the IT training programs in addition to stimulating the dialogue between course participants and their managers – all of which supports the implementation and transfer of learning into success-critical skills and changes in behavior on the job.

“Communication of training results targeting relevant stakeholders provides a great foundation for embedding and implementing the outcomes of our IT training programs throughout the organization.” – Rasmus Ry Nielsen, Head of Digitization, Municipality of Aarhus.

Prioritizing Impact Means Quality and Efficiency on a Whole New Level

The impact management approach to learning has resulted in time optimization and a stronger focus on results when solving IT-related tasks within the municipality.

”We have cuts cots and created a win-win situation: we spend less time on our tasks (case handling, creating correct mailing lists etc.), we solve more tasks, and on top of that we now have far more users as well as more satisfied users in our IT-system.”

“Learning is transferred and implemented more effectively when put into a polished framework like the one Peopleway offers.” – Rasmus Ry Nielsen, Head of Digitization, Municipality of Aarhus.